Third Ear

Surely a revelation is at hand

Considering our economy seems to be suffering with an increasingly bleak immune system disorder, I kept my New Year's resolution simple: Stay calm. Don't panic. Think positive. (Maybe that counts for the next three years, I'm not sure.)

One thing that could accidentally aid my goal is the death of traditional print media. If there's no news to read, how can one fly into a rage every day? And let's not kid ourselves: Dailies are going the way of the slender-billed Betamax. Or they may come out a couple times a week, as some are already doing. People have gotten too used to free online content delivered in a 24-hour news cycle, online or on TV.

Until corporate media honchos find a way to make online sites profitable and start hiring again instead of cutting back on reporters, our prospects of nourishing democracy for future generations will continue to dwindle.

Many of the best national stories this past year could not have been reduced to video bites. Some weren't even found in print outlets. Take the annual list of Project Censored stories, for example.

Founded in 1976 and run out of Sonoma State University, the project trains investigative journalists and conducts research on important national news stories “underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the US corporate media.” You can check out the Web site (www.projectcensored.org) or purchase the book version (Seven Stories Press) at most bookstores.

Among the top 25 censored stories for ƒ?~08:

“Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused By U.S. Occupation”

“Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA,” which is about Canada, the Unites States and Mexico meeting to secretly expand NAFTA with deep integration of a more militarized tri-national Homeland Security force.

“InfraGard: The FBI deputizes business” regarding 23,000 private business reps who spy on employees in exchange for early terrorist warnings.

“ILEA: Is the U.S. Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?” about the $16.5 million in federal funds to an International Law Enforcement Academy in El Salvador with satellite operations in Peru; training in counterterrorism techniques.

Plus fresh abuse of the executive branch … the list goes on.

Still, what's that old clichAc? ‘Tis better to have known and fought than to bury your head in the frickin’ dirt.